What you eat doesn’t just impact your waistline, it can change your mood.
Published by: Keith J Fernandez
The human body really is one giant biochemical lab, and studies suggest that it isn’t just how you feel that affects what restaurants you have on speed dial. Researchers believe diet may change the way you feel and react to events around you — not just immediately, but sometimes up to two or three days later.
Our dietary preferences aren’t as hardwired as we think. That’s good news when it comes to everyday issues, because while we don’t have the full picture, studies demonstrate a link between diet and emotions. As part of the emerging discipline of nutritional psychiatry research, a range of compounds occurring in food seem to improve depression, for example, including the Omega-3 fatty acids, zinc and folate, while others are linked to feelings of optimism.
Blueberries and blueberry juice are associated with having a more positive mood.
- Dr Wafaa Ayesh, Director, Clinical Nutrition Department, DHA
“It is commonly assumed that food can affect mood. One prevalent notion is that food containing tryptophan increases serotonin levels in the brain and alters neural processing in mood-regulating neurocircuits,” Marijn C.W. Kroes, of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour at Radboud University in Nijmegen, wrote in a 2013 study published in Science Direct. The body uses the amino acid tryptophan to make proteins that regulate our moods and appetite (serotonin), sleep and inflammation (melatonin), and cholesterol (niacin or vitamin B3). It is sold over the counter in some countries, but as with other compounds, is most effective when the body can pull it out of food.
Kroes and her colleagues showed that tryptophan and other long-neutral-amino-acids lift mood in healthy young women — specifically by affecting mood-regulating neurocircuits, they wrote in the paper.
High-protein foods such as chicken, turkey and beef aren’t just satisfying, filling meal choices, they should be on your plate because they trigger the release of dopamine.
- Alaa Takidin, Clinical Dietician, Canadian Specialist Hospital
But what does that mean for us today? If you’re struggling to understand how that biological soup should affect what you eat, you can rest easy. We asked nutritionists to explain the food-mood connection. Here are the foods they recommend:
- Fermented foods
- Bannas
- Chicken
- Dark Chocolates
- Blueberries
- Chillies
- Beans
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